We report the electrical properties of a high dielectric constant (high-k) material, ZrO2, deposited directly on SiGe, without the use of a Si buffer layer or a passivation barrier. ZrO2 thin films of equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) down to 16.5 Å were deposited on strained SiGe layers by reactive sputtering. Results indicate that ZrO2 films on SiGe have good interfacial properties and low leakage currents. Sintering in forming gas at 350 °C for 1 h could further improve the film quality. Although threshold voltage stability and dielectric dispersion become a concern for thick ZrO2 films, thin ZrO2 films of EOT less than 20 Å exhibit excellent electrical properties making them a good candidate for SiGe applications.

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Silicon and surface-channel SiGe p-metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistors (p-MOSFETs) using a ZrO2 gate dielectric with equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) less than 20 Å was fabricated. These p-MOSFETs show similar behavior to that of other high-k gate dielectric p-MOSFETs reported in the literature, and mobility enhancement is observed in the surface-channel SiGe p-MOSFETs.

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